Professional Objectives

Professional Objectives

My goal is to work in an archival environment, particularly in a position where I can primarily work with visual and/or audiovisual materials. I would also like to be involved with planning and implementing digital initiatives, as well as outreach initiatives designed to increase awareness of my organization and form partnerships with other organizations and institutions in the community. While there is no permanent digital preservation medium or standard, I believe that digitization is an important step in preserving and providing access to archival materials today. It is an important part of preservation, because the massive numbers of original materials are degrading faster than we can restore them. I also believe in developing in-person partnerships with local institutions to further build a network of organizations. This would enable the network to build up an association wherein each institution could assist and partner with each other for work involving events, collection development, preservation, training, and marketing initiatives. I am confident that I could contribute to institutions and departments concerned with these matters.

I also appreciate the need to increase my proficiency in archival processes, management, and theory. I would particularly like to gain more applied practice in archival processing, marketing, and advocacy. Additional practical training in these areas while working would go a long way toward furthering my archival education. It would also be worthwhile to build upon my technical skills, increasing my familiarity with additional obsolete media formats, and gaining further expertise in media archives. Handling visual and audiovisual materials requires a lot of hands-on training that cannot be taught in the classroom, and I think it would be ideal if I could further gain and refine these skills in my next position. I know that I have the capability and the enthusiasm to gain much from any guidance and development invested in me, and will repay that investment in full. Therefore, I would do best in an institution and with colleagues that will contribute to my development, as I believe I will also fully contribute to theirs. Residencies and fellowships would be an excellent way to accomplish my goals, but I am also interested in regular full-time positions.